Sunday, November 18, 2012

Some highlights and stats from Saturday's 49ers final football scrimmage of the fall (attended by nearly 2,500) in Charlotte's football stadium:

-- Five touchdowns were scored -- running back Alan Barnwell on runs of 4 and 1 yards; Austin Duke on a 6-yard reverse; and two TD passes from Karsten Miller (a 24-yarder to Darius Smalls and a 43-yarder to Ja'Quil Capel.

-- Barnwell ran for 116 yards on 16 carries, including a 47-yarder.That's an impressive 7.3 yards per carry.

-- Miller was 6-of-8 for 105 yards and the two TDs. Matt Johnson was 9-of-10 for 83 yards, while Lee McNeill was also 9-of-10 for 63. Capel caught five passes for 98 yards.

-- Nose guard Larry Ogunjobi led the defense with six tackles, while Desmond Cooper and Alex Petzke both had five. Nico Alcalde had1.5 sacks and Ogunjobi and Brandon Banks each had one.

-- Coach Brad Lambert's take:

“Barnwell’s a great runner – a great physical back. I feel like we’ve got some playmakers with Ja’quil, Will Thomas and Austin Duke. One thing that’s real exciting is that we have some playmakers out there and our offensive line is playing extremely hard.

“Our secondary has really down a nice job of hawking the ball. The last two, three scrimmages we’ve come out and turned the ball over and gotten the ball. We’ve got to take care of it on offense and got to force turnovers. That’s one big stat. We have some playmakers in all the right spots.”

I don't think we can draw too many conclusions playing against ourselves. The Panthers were absolute studs playing against themselves this summer. We'll just have to wait and see. I hope Barnwell and Ogunjobi are as good as they appear to be; they are fun to watch. I think Miller has the most to offer long-term at QB.